Blue Ridge, Land of Mystery

Dear Diary,

Maybe you don't remember, but I've told you already about the mysteries I hoped to solve by returning to Blue Ridge, a wealthy neighbourhood on the downslope toward Puget Sound of, well, a ridge.  I got there, both times, by climbing 100th St (this page is entirely in "NW"), which is not actually vertical between 10th and 11th Avenues, to 15th Ave, and then switching to Blue Ridge Drive, the area's main connector.  Anyway, I hoped, first, to find out who owned Blue Ridge Beach, and how one qualified to use it, as described in "The Ballard Seacoast", part II, on July 1.  And, second, I wanted to identify Blue Ridge Place #2, as I'd mentioned being unable to in "A Heavy Mile Stone" on June 27.  I only sort of solved both mysteries.

Carkeek Park

Each time - June 26 and October 10 - I started somewhere else.  In June I'd slept in Mineral Springs Park, but in October I had a head start that enabled me to reach Carkeek Park (introduced in "The Ballard Seacoast", part II) and sleep there, which in turn created another mystery:  Carkeek Park's restrooms weren't locked that night.

I asked Rachel Schulkin, parks department communications manager, about this, and on October 12 she told me that the restrooms hadn't been locked nightly while the park's gate was locked, but that the gate would re-open on October 19, at which time the restrooms would, um, re-close.  Some people think, dear Diary, that your readers are my fellow homeless, in which case I should then have informed them immediately of the 24-hour availability.  Well, I don't know for sure, but I seriously doubt my dilatory writing habits in this case hurt anyone.  In October I did find what seemed to be a guy living in the men's room's disabled stall, but otherwise saw no signs of my peers there either time.

Each time I've tried to catch up on my mistakes, I've failed.  In my original report on Carkeek Park, I said its men's room had "a working dryer".  It does not, and probably didn't in June, and in October I even ventured into the women's room for a glance and found none there either.  My notes clearly say "dryer", meaning what I told you, dear Diary, but they were simply wrong.

Both the freestanding water fountain somewhere near those restrooms, and the one a hundred miles away at the Eddie McAbee Entrance, both of which I originally reported as off, were on in October.

Anyway, on June 26 I went from Mineral Springs Park straight to Blue Ridge, on October 10 from Carkeek Park ditto.  Each time the route took me past the Entrance, and sometimes I rested there.

Blue Ridge Circle

If you follow Blue Ridge Drive well down towards the coast, you will eventually come to a small, grassy, round hill on your left.  This, although it bears no city signage (except the unimaginative name "Roundhill Circle" for the road around the hill), is a genuine City of Seattle park.

The parks department page says a Boeing gave it to the city in 1954.  And why did the city want it?  Well, um, duh:

for the views, of course.  Sorry I couldn't get back there on a more view-friendly day.

Blue Ridge Places

Two addresses on Milford Way, which is reached from Blue Ridge Drive via Radford Ave, were also Boeing bequests.  1900 Milford is, in context, obvious, although again there's no signage.  It's a strongly sloped bit of land right in the turn from Radford to Milford.

Again, the point is the view to which my new photograph doesn't do justice:

Now, I don't pretend to have a clue where 1941 Milford is by myself, but on October 10 I consulted Google Maps, which said it's the bit of land in the next turn of Milford Way.  That land does have a view:

But where I find myself doubting this identification is that that land also has a lawn:

which certainly looks like the lawn of the house adjacent.  Here, if nowhere else in Blue Ridge, some signage distinguishing "Private Property" from park land would really help.  Assuming the identification made by Google Maps is correct in the first place.

(Blue Ridge Seattle) Woodbine Park

If you take yet another detour from Blue Ridge Drive, you'll reach this private, but unfenced, park, which I visited only in October.  Google Maps calls it, same as the Beach Park, "Blue Ridge Park", so I hoped it would have a version of the sign, easier to read than the overgrown one at the beach site, that would give me a URL for further information.

Easier to read?  Definitely.  URL?  Not so much.

Fortunately, a young woman leaving the park noticed my consternation and stopped to chat.  I explained about you, dear Diary, and about my trip from Golden Gardens to Carkeek Parks in June.  Having just slept in the latter park, I had a new appreciation for the frequency of trains there, which left me thinking I'd either been extremely lucky, or extremely destructive to train schedules, when I'd hiked the embankment.  She contributed to this sense of unease by saying I'd definitely been lucky in not getting stranded by the tide.

But anyway, she gave me the URL I was looking for, confident that it would answer my questions.  It didn't.  Obviously Blue Ridge Seattle is an organisation of homeowners, but which homeowners, and similar questions, aren't answered in the site's public areas.

As I walked away, a man driving a van paused to take a picture of me, no doubt so as to warn the neighbours.

Right at the start of Blue Ridge Drive is an office named Blue Ridge Realty.  Maybe they know who's allowed, and who isn't, in Woodbine Park, and in Blue Ridge Beach.

The Eddie McAbee Entrance

As I sat here resting from my October visit to Blue Ridge, I realised I hadn't been fair to this kind little place.  It isn't private, nor unsigned; anyone can be there, and can know that it's OK.  It has benches to sit on, and a water fountain that anyway ran for a few months this year.  It may point toward the august inapproachability of Carkeek Park, but in its own right it's a wonderful rest from the shopping centre a block away.  So I took its picture.

Anyway, that's as far as I got, this year, dear Diary, in solving the mysteries of Blue Ridge.  Maybe next year...